


Bloody Bonds {GOT7 Vampire AU}

by HeyItsYourBadassIzz



Category: GOT7
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-06
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-03-01 05:03:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 21,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13287576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeyItsYourBadassIzz/pseuds/HeyItsYourBadassIzz
Summary: So I forgot to say this earlier but first, thank you for reading this. I plan to upload a chapter every weeek, most probably during the weekend unless exceptional times (aka when I have free time to write and post more). So please be patient and feel free to give any feedback on the story. Thanks again for reading, enjoy!





	1. Alley

Jaebum clicked his tongue with impatience as he stared at the scene taking place in front of him: Mark’s hand slowly reaching the waist of his female companion, completely missing the song beat though none of them seemed to care about it. Bambam found himself in a similar situation just a few feet from afar. 

“They’ve never been able to resist a pretty face.” He thought for himself. He’d rather be at their apartment or doing his shift at the gas station as he was supposed to do, but instead he remained seating in the club sofa, keeping an eye on his friends without saying a single word. He ran his hands through his dark hair and took a sip of whatever drink Yugyeom had served him. Normal people didn’t have to remind themselves of drinking what they paid for, but he was used to it anyways. 

The gang had gone through pretty rough weeks, with the cops on their heels they’d moved twice and even though everything was calmed again, the boys deserved a night out to relieve stress and feed themselves. That was why Jb had allowed them to take a day off and follow their new flirty neighbours to Yugyeom’s workplace. Also, because it was easier just cutting them some slack for once than listening to Mark’s snorts and complains for missing out such easy preys. Jaebum rolled his eyes for his own indulgence and was about to take another sip when a Yug’s head shake caught his attention: Mark was heading to the back door, leading his date by the hand into the alley. He nodded right before leaving his glass on the table and stood up, ready to follow them. 

The cool air of the night hit his face and he sighed as the loud music disappeared from his ears as soon as he silently closed the door behind him. The lovely couple didn’t hear his steps as he came nearer, Mark whispering something to the girl’s ear that made them both giggle. Jaebum stayed quiet and crossed his arms, being sure that the other had noticed his presence. 

“Such a lovely night.” Mark giggled again, slowly caressing the girl’s neck with his nose. His innocent smile could trick anyone, but not Jb. And he was getting impatient. In fact, he was about to cough to make the elder hurry up until someone cut in first:

“Markieu, are you done yet?” Bambam appeared through the club door, slamming it closed again with no care at all, though his tone was joyful. “I wanna taste that piece of yours.”

The girl openned her eyes wide and looked around, almost jumping off her skin when she realised not only Bambam’s presence, but Jaebum’s right next to them. Mark took a finger to his lips, that charming smile still on his mouth, in an attempt to relax her, but at the same time, his hand was clenched around her wrist, and they all knew he wasn’t gonna let it go. Her gaze jumped from one male to the other, looking like a deer in front of car lights.  
“Shh… it won’t hurt, I promise” Mark’s smiled widened as his fangs became more noticeable, and BamBam let scape a smirk. She tried to push him but hitting a wall would have felt a lot lighter. The red-haired bent down to face her neck but at some point he softened his grip around her forearm and she slipped away with a horror scream.

She didn’t get far though, as Jaebum fell upon her and with a quick moved snapped her neck, staring at the other two with repprobation and stung his fangs on the dead girls skin. “Eat fast, I wanna go home.”


	2. Missing

“Dammit! Not again!” Park Jinyoung hit his keyboard in frustration and pinched his nosebridge, in an attempt to calm himself down. It was the third time he had to refill that missing report because the computer kept crashing everytime he was almost finished.  
He looked across his desk, suddenly remembering that he wasn’t alone, that someone was, well or had been, in fact, answering his questions about the missing girl.  
“I’m sorry, ma’am, these tech problems always get on my nerves.” He smiled subtly to complete the apology, but the woman in front of him didn’t notice: she kept looking at her own shoes, playing nervously with the hands on her lap. 

Jinyoung sighed and began refilling the form again: he had almost memorised the whole thing from having to repeat each answer the previous times. And it was similar to all the other informs they had been recieving the last few months: people who disappeared leaving no trace and without taking any of their personal items with them. But people disappeared all the time, even more in such a big city, and after studying the cases, they had come to the conclussion that those disappereances had nothing to do with each other, even though Officer Park felt they meant more than isolated casualties.  
He stared at the picture on the screen, the one the girl had brought to identify her missing friend: such a young, beautiful girl, maybe not much younger than himself. “So…” the officer coughed, in order to get the other’s attention, “you were dancing in a club and then she was gone? Like that?”

“Yes, we were with her new neighbors, she was dancing with this boy called Ash and I headed to the bathroom but when I got back…” she took a deep breath, her voice trembling “… Ash asked me if she was with me. A-and I never saw her again.”  
The girl covered her mouth with a hand to silence her sobs as tears ran down her cheeks, but she looked up, her gaze meeting Jinyoung’s while she kept talking. “They helped me look around the club but she wasn’t there…” Another sob. The young man clenched his teeth and fought the impulse to tell her he already knew that part, hoping for her to remember some new details about that night. “… I was staying at her apartment so they took me there and I waited until morning, but she didn’t came. It’s been four days and she hasn’t even answered her phone and the guys say they haven’t seen her around. You’ve got to find her, please!”  
Jinyoung’s eyes widened as he felt the soft hand of the girl around his fist on the table, a desperate attempt to call for help. He moved his arm away and looked at her with a serious yet calmed expression. “May be she’s staying at some boyfriend house or lost her pho— ”  
The officer became quiet as someone squeezed his shoulder from behind. “We’ll do our best to find your friend, miss. If you hear something from her or remember anything from that night, please feel welcome to come and inform us.”

Some minutes later, right after the young woman had left the police station, Jackson Wang handed a warm cup of coffee to his partner with a proud smile. “I saved your ass out there, you’re welcome.”

“You didn’t save my anything, just forgot your manners and interrupted me when…”  
“Oh, Jinyoung, you know as well as me that she was about to cause a scene.” Jackson’s tone got higher as he mimicked his friend’s attitude. “Are you sure she isn’t with her boyfriend?” He let out a small smirk and went back to his normal voice. “For fuck’s sake, her friend is missing, of course she’s sure about her not hiding for four days at her non-existent boyfriend’s house.”

“It was just a possibility, I was trying to comfort her.” Officer Park looked dead serious, not answering to the teases of his annoying partner. “And you probably would have said the same after rewriting the story a hundred times! But lucky you, never around when it’s time for paperwork.”

Jackson lifted his hands in surrender as he palmed again the other cop’s shoulder, still wearing a smile on his lips. “Alright alright, let’s call it a truce.” He leaned against the counter of their breaks room and took a sip of his own coffee. “It seems like another standard disappearance. No coincidences with the other cases you’ve obsessively been reading again lately?”

Jinyoung ignored the other’s taunt again, shook his head and set his eyes on his now empty cup, trying to remember those informs. “I don’t think so but… I remember thinking there was something weird in a few of them…” He remained quiet while biting his bottom lip, waiting for the memory to come back to his mind, until Officer Wang’s voice woke him again.  
“You’ll have to remember it later, Sherlock, we’ve got a call.”


	3. Ashes

Mark sighed as he rubbed his hands against the uniform’s fabric and proceeded to push the sequence of buttons he had already memorized so many times. After a few seconds the machine started working and the red haired could see how another corpse was swallowed by fire. He stared at it with fascination from behind the protection glass and checked the time of his watch: he had still a couple hours before the sun came up and his shift was already over, the whole morgue immersed in its usual silence.  
The boy took off his labor clothes and picked a ceramic vessel from his bag to carry the remaining ashes with him. May be working surrounded by death wasn’t the most appealing job ever, but it suited him. And most importantly: it was useful. It gave him and the gang a chance to get rid of any evidence of their crimes. It hadn’t taken them long to figurate the security guard’s schedules and how to sneak in whatever they needed to get into the fire chamber.  
Mark was unexperienced and quiet, but knew how to cause a good impression on the people around him, getting hired had been easier than stealing candy from a toddler: he had asked specifically to work in the night shift so he could keep his normal life as a college student and his tasks were mainly taking the unclaimed bodies and cremating them, or moving them from one freezing room to other. Sometimes he was asked by the police about a violent death or an autopsy record that should have been sent to them earlier, yet that wasn’t really his problem but the forensic surgeon’s one.  
He would never admit it out loud but he was thankful to Jb for having found him this job. He was thankful to Jb for everything, even though he usually gave their leader a hard time and complained about many of his decisions. And Jb was right most of the time: they needed those jobs. They may not be humans anymore, but one thing was clear: they needed humans. And, even more importantly, they needed to get along with humans. And, as the humans they pretended to be, they also needed money.  
Besides, Mark never thought he would enjoy such simple tasks, but in fact, he loved them. As a vampire, he had seen his energies highly increased so keeping himself busy helped both physically and mentally, now he didn’t find himself thinking about hunting so often. The red haired enjoyed his rides to the morgue too: just himself, his skateboard and the music on his earphones; not even a soul in the streets that could notice his presence. But the best part of it was the fire chamber: he could stare at it for hours even though the process barely lasted a couple minutes. He had even adopted his fake name “Ash” from it. Watching how the flames reduced literally anything to just a bunch of ashes and dirt gave him tickles on his insides. It reminded him of the fragility of human and inhuman things, one of them wouldn’t last a minute in there, and ironically, somehow, that made him feel alive, gave him some humanity.

He kept the jar with the ashes in his bag, set his phone’s playlist and waved the security guard goodbye faking a jawn while leaving the building. He took the longer route home and stopped by the river to throw what used to be a person into the water with a smirk, it seemed kind of funny how easy someone’s existence could be completely erased. He stayed there for a few minutes, immersed in the night’s atmosphere, before he realized he was running out of time: the sun was about to come out.   
“Fuck, I’ll have to go underground.” He hissed as he tried to picture the city’s sewerage web Jaebum had made them all memorize for these occasions. Not completely sure of where he was heading, he jumped into one of the drains he had near him, without any time for hesitations. “Well, I’ll definitely get somewhere anyways.” 

He kept getting faster and faster on his skate, wishing to get home now that daytime was chasing him, until his feline reflex caught the movement of a shadow at his feet, but it was too late: something had grabbed his ankle, causing him to fall and roll on the wet, dirty floor. It didn’t take him long to react though: kicking the thing with his free leg until it let him go and be back on his feet. He could now see as he got closer what had grabbed it: a hand, a human hand. Mark looked at the figure laying face down on the ground, probably some dying prey facing its destiny or a drunkard that had fallen through an opened sewer. Anyway, something was clear: it wasn’t his problem.  
So he looked around, his eyes feeling more comfortable in that darkness than they were up in the surface, to get back at his skate until he heard the dying thing speak, just one syllable, with graspy, dry voice. “Blood...” 

Sure he couldn’t have heard right, Mark raised an eyebrow and squatted next to the body, inspecting what seemed to be a man. Burying his long fingers in his hair, he raised the other’s head to see his face and neck better: covered in dried blood that seemed to have run down his own throat, but without any opened injuries, not even a scar.  
“The way it has grabbed my foot… that strength…” the boy was talking to himself, thinking out loud, trying to deny what, or better, who, he had found. “There’s only one way to prove it.” Effortlessly, he stretched the man’s lips with his fingers, and saw what he was expecting: those fangs were clearly from another vampire. He gasped. “… A newborn.”

Jaebum had been pretty clear to them all about what to do if they found one, and the red haired knew exactly that he could not ignore his leader’s orders for that specific topic. So he humbled, before pocking the other’s face with his index finger. “Hmm… We are running out of time, buddy so I need you to behave and let me carry you.”

“Blood…” was the only answer he got while adjusting the weak body to his shoulders and his sharp smile appeared again, showing his own fangs in the darkness.

“Yeah, yeah, if we don’t get fried in the sun before getting home we’ll get you some blood.”


	4. Sunlight

Cold. The type of cold that gets stuck inside your bones and freezes your whole body. And suddenly, the feeling of drowning. Youngjae jumped in the bed he was laying, gasping for air while he sat up. One of his hands reached for his chest, for he tried to get rid of that suffocating feeling.

“No need for you to hyperventilate, Sleeping Beauty.” The confused boy turned his head to find another man, with slim figure and blue-silver hair sitting on a chair by his bedside. He wasn’t paying him much attention though, just playing with one of the few rings he wore in his long fingers.

Out the corner of his eye, he could see how another tall figure, all dressed in black and with bright yellow hair, disappeared through the door. Unexpectedly, a thought crossed Youngjae’s mind, focusing his gaze on the hand laying at his chest: where was his heart beat? With another scared jump, he fell off the bed, becoming a mess of sheets on the floor. In the middle of the struggle to untangle himself, footsteps could be heard as other three figures entered the room: a red haired guy who’s face rang a bell inside his mind but could not say why, the one that had left a couple minutes ago and in front of this two, a broad shouldered man, with his black hair up and his lips pierced, looking at him harshly.

Definitely none of them looked like the girl he was hanging out with last night. Where the hell had he ended? He wasn’t even wearing his clothes but someone else’s, clearly belonging to a person with a bigger frame. How wasted had he gotten to end up like this? They were partying and suddenly everything was a blur… May be…

“Umm… Listen, if you are…” Crap, he couldn’t even remember her name. “her boyfriend or something, I’m sorry, I didn’t know…”

He shut up as the tall, serious man in front of him came closer with roughness. Youngjae got up with a speed that surprised himself, and looked at the other confused, his hands on the air and his eyes unconsciously closed, waiting for a good blow to hit his body. But instead, everything he felt was a cold hand around his wrist, while another one made him grab a silver bag with a straw stuck in it. When he opened his eyes again, he could see everyone else in the room shaking their heads with a smirk, probably laughing at his reaction.

“First drink, then we’ll talk.”

Youngjae shrugged his shoulders, nodded and took the straw to his mouth, he didn’t have many other options at the moment and wanted to leave the place as soon as possible. He was expecting some childish revenge from the group in front of them: may be a very sour drink or a full bottle of tabasco spilled in that package. But instead, he found himself raising his eyebrows with astonishment, finishing the whole thing in barely half a minute. It tasted weird, though, kind of metallic, but somehow, he wished to have a whole litter of it.

The boy took a thumb to his lips, for a drop had seem to go down his chin and rubbed the path it had drawn to clean himself up but ended up staring at it, now tinted in red. It felt… sticky, and oddly dense. His eyes jumped from the guys staring at him with sharp smiles to the liquid on his fingers, as the realization came to mind. His hand reached for the nearest wall, afraid of falling in that exact moment and he bent over himself, sickness filling his stomach and waiting to throw up while he coughed.

“You gave me blood?” Tears of disgust filled his eyes but his body didn’t seem to reject the beverage as much as his mind: vomit never came.

 

“What do you think vampires drink?” the leader answered. Youngjae couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or truly asking. All he could do was respond with a loud laugh, hands back in the air as a surrender sign.

 

“Okay, okay, I get it. Shouldn’t have messed with your girl blah blah blah… You had your revenge, now let me go home and get my fucking mouth cleaned.” The boy’s tone became more serious with every step he took forwards the group of strangers between himself and the doorway. He wanted to leave that crazy group behind and he wanted to leave them now.

 

Nobody moved to let him go, neither to stop him. Instead, the raven-haired man turned his head to the one still sited next to the bed. “You didn’t tell him?!”

 

All the eyes turned to the silver haired boy, who looked shocked for a second. “He just woke up! What did you want me to say?! _Good morning, now you’re a vampire, welcome to the club_?”

 

Youngjae couldn’t believe what he was hearing and turned around a few seconds to face the leader clenching his jaw at the others and then at him, not able to do anything but to laugh again, due partly to his nerves. The whole scene was marked by surrealism. “No need to put on a show, I learnt my lesson, okay? And if you truly believe that vampire’s shit, please ask your drug dealer about it.” With his uneasiness turning to anger, he tried to push the all-in-black boy blocking the entrance, but it clearly didn’t work. But somehow, he knew, _he felt_ that he had enough strength to push him away. He pushed again, charging against the other’s chest with his shoulder. His opponent had stepped back a few centimeters now. So he would push again. And…

“Yugyeom, let him go.” The leader spoke, and the boy stepped aside, leaving Youngjae looking around in confusion. Anyway, he would not wait any longer: even without shoes, he was ready to run home as long and fast as he could, subtly scared of the whole situation. But a hand grabbed his wrist one more time and the red haired shouted.

 

“What?! No.”

 

“Mark, I said, let him go.”

 

“No! I didn’t carry his ass all the way here for you to let him get fried in the Sun so easily!” So that’s why that quiet guy kept ringing a bell in YJ’s head.

Blurry memories started appearing in his mind: darkness, smell of humidity, a voice waking him up, but overall, pain. Lots of pain. Suddenly, those images filled up every single of Youngjae’s thoughts, and replaced them with one only thing: anger. An anger he’d never felt before. Before he could even control himself, his free fist moved to Mark’s cheekbone, the whole group gasping and freezing in surprise. But their guest was already running at speedlight down the corridor, looking for whichever door that lead outside.

 

Bambam was the first to react, getting up from his chair and chasing him, but he was soon overcome by Jb, followed by their other two partners.

 

Anxiety was sharing Youngjae’s mind with the anger, but he was sure that as soon as he crossed the doorstep to the hallway and left those lunatics behind, everything would be alright. He had to stop for half a second and step back when he managed to open the house door, for the light of the hall seemed too bright, even though there was only a small window to illuminate the place. And that was enough time for Jaebum to catch him, both of them falling down and rolling on the floor. YJ tried to free himself again but any effort resulted useless: the other one was sitting on his hips now, pushing him to the ground even more by his shoulders.

 

The rest of the gang was already around them, but just stared at the two fighting from the door. Jaebum took his opponent’s arm and pressed it to the floor. Even though he hadn’t even touched Youngjae’s hand, this one could feel it’s palm burning, letting out a scream, and realized the only difference between that hand and the rest of his body: it was exposed to the light coming from the tiny window. That new pain woke him up, distracting him from the one on his mind, and he stared with wide eyes at Jb, who spoke as calmed as he had done in their previous conversation.

 

“Now, are you gonna let us talk this out like adults or do I need to show you what the Sun can do to your whole body?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I forgot to say this earlier but first, thank you for reading this. I plan to upload a chapter every weeek, most probably during the weekend unless exceptional times (aka when I have free time to write and post more). So please be patient and feel free to give any feedback on the story. Thanks again for reading, enjoy!


	5. Newbie's nanny

“So, Yugyeom, you’d take him with you tonight to work!” Jb raised his voice so the other man, playing videogames on the sofa with Bambam could hear him. But he ended up walking towards him anyways, pretty sure that the younger one wasn’t paying any attention.

 

Youngjae watched it all from his chair, far away physically and mentally: they’d spent the whole evening talking, well, to be honest, Jaebum had spent the whole evening explaining him how his life would be from now on and the rules he’d have to follow if he wanted to be with them. And, for what he had understood it was either with them or against them. The boy hadn’t pronounced a word in what had seemed to be hours: too shock to answer, too many questions he could not tidy on his mind and too much information to digest had left him exhausted. The ideas danced vaguely inside his head, and Yj’s usually loud personality had become dull, as if he was nor awake or asleep, but in an intermedium limbo. Of course, he had to be dreaming, he must be dreaming it all! Though the moment he stared at his own hand… it was already healed, replaced thanks to his newly improved vampire metabolism or however it was called; but he had felt it. It had hurt him even more than a regular burn.

 

“Yah!” the yellow-haired guy screamed as his elder friend’s frame stood between himself and the tv screen. “I was listening, move!"

“Oh, yeah? What did I say?”

“To take the newbie… Somewhere.”

“To work! With yooou!” Jb pointed at him with his index finger before heading to the door and taking an old bomber jacket from behind it. “I’m leaving to the gas station now. Bambam! Are you free tonight?”

“Yes, I changed shifts with someone.” He and Yugyeom had resumed their game, but the second one paused it at his answer.

“Why isn’t Bambam this guy’s nanny, then?”

“Because I need him to do me a favor. Bambam took care of you when you first came here, now it’s your turn, stop whining. And ask your boss if they need another waiter.” Jb buffed, placed the house keys on his pocket and raised his chin at his silver haired hommie. “Come with me, I’ll explain you on my way to work.”

Both Bambam and Yugyeom sighed, they turned off the tv and stood up, one walking to Youngjae as the other reached Jaebeom, followed by the sound of the door closing at their backs.

The slim boy let himself fall comfortably on the chair next to the neophyte, a hand extended on his direction with a small grin. “I guess Jaebum already told you but, I’m Kim Yugyeom”.

“I—I’m Choi Youngjae” he shook the other’s hand and cleared his throat to get rid of any sign of nervousness in his raspy voice, caused by not having spoken for hours. With a bitter smile, Youngjae continued. “But I guess you already know that.”

“Yeah, news run faster than fire here.” The youngest of the gang winked at the newcomer and after a couple minutes in silence, he clapped his own thigh, stood up again and pointed at YJ with his index finger. “I’m pretty sure you still have lots of questions, but we can’t be late to work in your first day. Here’s my offer: I’ll answer you one right now and we’ll talk about the rest of them on our way.”

“Deal.” Youngjae smiled, amused with how easygoing his new partner seemed to be in contrast with Jaebum’s seriousness and Mark’s quiet personality. He frowned, thinking about which knowledge should be his priority, but when he talked again, his mouth spoke by itself, guided by his new and strong primary instinct, leaving aside any previous thought. “How did you get the blood you gave me earlier?”

Yugyeom bursted in laughter for a few seconds, being able to read the confusion on his face. “That’s your new-self speaking, getting your priorities clear. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it sooner or later. But, back to your question…” He tapped his chin with his fingers, leaning to Youngjae as if it were a confidential matter. “Bambam, the one who’s left with Jaebum, works as an ambulance driver… he gets us some blood from the hospital from time to time.”

Youngjae nodded as his vampiric nanny left the room and came back with a jacket that threw at him.

“Now, first, put this on. It’s cold outside although we can’t feel it. And second, my turn for questions. But come on, come on, get up or we’ll be late. I’m sure you can speak and walk at the same time, Choi Youngjae!”

The so-called sighed and got up, following the other one through the door and downstairs ‘til they both were walking under the stars, no moon visible. It was so dark, but not that that could bother his brand-new nocturn vision. He’d rather stay in bed for what looked like the rest of his immortal life (even though his body would never ever need to sleep again, for sure), but part of him was intrigued about the strange circle he had joined by just dying, and the other was still too confused and tired to oppose any kind of resistance. So he kept going, with his hands in the borrowed-coat pockets and his gaze at his own feet.

“What was I saying? Oh! Yes! My questions!” Yugyeom’s look pierced at the figure beside him, not sure if he should be acting more formal or friendlier towards it. “Has Jb told you our two golden rules?”

YJ nodded one more time, attempting to recall that information from the previous hours of chatting. “Never hunt alone… And…” He bitted his lower lip, the answer at the tip of his tongue. “Don’t tell what we are to anyone…?”

“If someone finds out, eliminate them right away, yes.” The slim man smiled once more, before asking again. “And to conclude our short interrogation… Where did you live? Don’t look at me so shocked! We’ll have to go and get your stuff from somewhere!” Suddenly, he smiled in the most innocent way Youngjae had seen since waking up in their crazy apartment, running a hand through his own yellow hair when he realized what he’d just said. “I’m sorry, it was the past tense, wasn’t it? You’ll get used to it, though. We all did at some point.”


	6. Code 187

“This one’s on me.” The officer left the car, stepped into the gas station shop and put a couple sandwiches on the counter.

 

“No donuts? What a shame! I love a cliché.” Jaebum smiled sharply while scanning the bar codes from the packages.

 

“Oh shut up, if we ate those things every night we’d be a cliché that you wouldn’t love so much.”

 

“What? A grumpy cop? Aren’t you already one of those?” He kept teasing the other man and turned around to make his coffee, as asual. “One black and a latte right?”

 

“A grumpy _fat_ cop.” The agent sighed and nodded to his question. “You seem to forget I could get you arrested if I wanted to, smartypants.”

 

Jaebum laughed, left both cups of coffee between them and lifted a hand to remove a couple hairlocks from his forehead. “Yeah, but I’m pretty sure your partner out there would act as my witness just to piss you off. I’m safe.”

 

“Well, you just lost your tip, ask the asshole of my partner for it next time he pays.”  Rolling his eyes, the police officer smirked and took out his wallet, put the sandwiches under his arm and took the coffee cups with his free hand, as he did almost every night of every week he had to work nightshifts. It was the nearest place near the police station with semi-decent coffee, after all.

 

Before Jb could take the change out of the register, a claxon sounded, followed by a voice coming out of his customer's walkie talkie. “Park Jinyoung, we’ve got a call, hurry up.” Suddenly the voice turned more high-pitched, and mocking, almost a childish tone. “And stop flirting already, I’m hungry.”

 

But the vampire was paying attention to something else: his exceptional good sense of hearing allowed him to listen whatever Officer Wang had on his radio car, and this time, it was a call from what sounded like a crime scene, a 187 code, more precisely. He barely noticed when Jinyoung turned around, his ears colored by a bright red, and ran without dropping anything to the door. “It’s alright, keep it!”

 

Jaebum shrugged his shoulders and let himself fall again in his comfortable chair, trying to recall what he had just heard. He grabbed a notebook from behind the counter, wrote the date and started taking some notes. “A dead body… probably a young male… Messy… Brutally disfigured… Bleed to death but no blood puddles around… In a party district.”

 

“Fuck!” As he read back the other pages and saw how everything he'd written matched with the previous pages, his first instinct was to kick the glass vitrine right in front of him but managed to stay calm, took a deep breath instead and got his phone out from his pocket. “Mark, I need you to head somewhere and tell me if you find something interesting. It has happened again.”

 

Meanwhile, Jinyoung worked hard to keep the coffee inside the cups instead of all over the car, thanks to Jackson’s reckless driving. “Uhm… probably you know this already but… You’re going too fast!”

 

“Jinyoung” His partner had the gaze fixed on the road, his hands tight against the steering wheel. “All of these crimes keep happening around the same zone. If we get there soon enough we can probably find that killer on the streets.”

There wasn’t much traffic at that time, but it didn’t make him feel any easier, cause Jackson kept going faster and faster.

“I know but we won’t be able to look for him if we are fucking dead! Slow down! Now!”

He had been Jackson’s partner long enough to know he took his job to a personal level, though he could be seen too relaxed at first. And they both had been frustrated lately, they just had different ways of dealing with it. The usual disappearances had turned into crime scenes that repeated themselves every four or five days for the past month, and it was an even more shocking phenomenon due to the young age of the victims. They had doubled their shifts and on their free time they were getting obsessed with the case anyways: Jinyoung’s living room had become a tidy mess of informs, reports and maps, while Jackson spent his insomnia hours running or working out to release some stress and rounding around the areas where most of the violent deaths had taken place.

Every corpse had the same characteristics: numerous perforations, bleed to death with no trace of blood, and if so, a couple of defensive wounds. They couldn’t find traceable DNA, no fingerprints, nothing. Their main hypothesis had been two: either a new gang’s revenge sign or a serial killer. If they didn’t get some advance on the case, it would end by consuming them completely.

But that’s why they made such a good team: Jackson was powerful and motivated, knew how to connect with suspects and witnesses, while Jinyoung himself was practical, strong-willed and great coming up with plans and strategies. He was the brains, Jackson, the heart. They complimented each other, and in moments like this, Officer Park was grateful that both of them knew that.

 

Because Wang slowly let go of the pedal, and they stopped right on a red traffic light, were they could see how a truck past fast in front of their eyes.

 

“You’re welcome.” Jinyoung smiled with relief, using that short stop to take a sip of his, now, shaken coffee.


	7. True business

“Still don’t remember a thing about that night?” Mark asked while taking a seat on a turned back chair, his arms resting on the back of it.

Youngjae was now in front of him, studying the tunnels map of the city and just shook his head as an answer. “Only the same traces as before: that girl, the club and then… a fuzzy blur.”

A month had already gone by since he joined that new _life_ , and needless to say, he was still getting used to it. But time had passed so quickly he hadn’t even noticed, the boys kept him busy all the time and -even though he had not asked about it out loud- they tried to have him accompanied all day. May be because they didn’t trust him, may be because they felt pity for him, it didn’t really matter: the neophyte had never felt less alone. He missed his student life, he missed his family and friends, who for sure should be worrying about his disappearance and he partially missed his independence and the walking on sunshine part of his day to day life; but this whole new routine was new and kind of exciting, making him feel like a child on summer camp -but way cooler-. During the day they’d just lay around or play videogames, and at night he worked with Yugyeom at the club or explore the night life of the city.

The boys had accepted him well, there were still many things he didn’t know and answers they hadn’t given him, but they hadn’t let him feel like an outcast either. The only thing he hadn’t tried yet was hunting. Jaebum said neophytes tended to lose control pretty fast and pretty easily and due to the strong nature of newborn vampires they couldn’t risk catching attention because of a Youngjae slip, nor control him in such case, so he had been feeding himself with blood they gave him. Also, his new physical skills had proved to be better than he imagined, so he invested night time on just testing them and trying to push them to their limits. But besides working and enjoying himself, he had to deal with Jaebum’s commands, that included working on the club, not contacting any of his previous loved ones, learning how to run away through the city’s tunnels and… bringing back the memories of the night of his death.

 

“I picked you up right… here. That means you might have been attacked around this area.” Mark pointed somewhere between a red circle that could be read as “morgue” and the river border, tracing a bigger circle with his fingertip on the paper. But as he watched Youngjae front at the map, his voice tone became smoother. “Don’t worry, you’ll remember it sooner or later. It took me months to recall how I…” He cleared his throath “got converted. It’s just Jaebeom… Us, we crave that information.”

 

“Why? Is it that important? I mean, people gets murdere—transformed every day, why do you need the details of mine?”

The red-haired sighed and opened his mouth to answer, but another voice interrupted their conversation. “Youngjae!”

 

Bambam closed the door and came back to the living room with a large box decorated with a bow and left it over the map on the table, pushing it to the one-so-called. “I need you to try this on.”

The rookie exchanged looks with both men near him and then fixed his gaze on the box, caught totally off-guard. “What is it?” He slowly stood up and proceeded to take off his jacket, left it on his seat and shook the package on his hands, bringing it closer to his ear. Somehow, it made Bambam laugh without intending to.

“Just go to your room, try it on and call me when you’re ready, it’s not rocket science!”

 

YJ shrugged his shoulders and obeyed, somehow reading relief in Mark’s face, that quickly changed to an accomplice smile towards Bambam he could not understand. “One month is not enough to get to know someone with a double life, after all.” He said for himself and closed the door of the room he now shared with Yugyeom.

 

“Actually, it’d be a double _after_ life” His roommate laughed at his own pun, getting up from the bed and approaching Youngjae, his eyes fixed on the box. “Oh, it arrived quickly. Nice. I thought I’d have to lend you some of my clothes instead.”

 

“You knew about this?!”

“Who do you think helped Bambam to choose it?” The yellow-haired grinned at the other’s surprised expression. “Don’t worry, we tried to make it your style.”

 

“But why do I need to wear a…” Youngjae asked right before opening the box, taking out a black, long piece of clothing and staring at it even more confused than before. “… cape?”

 

“We’ll tell you later, come on! The sooner you’re dressed the sooner we can talk about it.” Yugyeom clapped his hands before leaving the bedroom and the neophyte was left looking at the other clothes: a wavy gassy white shirt with wide shirtsleeves and a ribbon on the neck, black suit pants and black and white formal shoes.

Intrigued, he tried them on and was struggling with that weird coat when someone whistled from the doorway. “Look at you! Looking like a movie star!”

Bambam came in and helped him tie the necklace and a golden chain that united both shoulders of the cape, forming a design on each of them. “Now we only have to fix your hair.”

Youngjae realized then that Bambam had got changed too, now he wore some vaporous silk shirt that matched his silver blue hair and white skinny jeans, as well as long earrings.

“My hair? Are we going somewhere?”

“Shh… Let me work.” He had already put some cream on his hands and was spreading it along YJ’s hair, leaving it up and kind of messy, a couple locks falling on his face. “Ok, now we are done. Jb is waiting at the car with the others, let’s go.”

Youngjae could have resisted, he was stronger than almost everyone except for Jaebum probably, but it’d made no difference. He just let Bambam guide him out of the apartment with a hand gently pressing his back. At least they were breaking their routine.

 

“Wow! Since when do we have this car?” As he jumped into the black Landrover with a bright short laugh. “It’s so cool! Where are we heading, then? Some fancy party? Or just a costume one where we pretend to pretend be vampires?”

 

Ideas were popping inside his head and out of his mouth as the car kept going under the night sky, his fingers fidgeting with his cape’s chain.

 

“I don’t remember being this loud when you took me in.” Yugyeom rolled his eyes without hiding his slight amusement and then set them on their leader who drove the vehicle, clearly expecting him to answer.

 

“Oh but you were, Gyeom.” Everyone else kept silence until Jb shook his head and turned left, smiling briefly and speaking right afterwards, as they entered in one of the richest neighbourhoods of the city. “No pretending, Youngjae. Just let me speak first and let us introduce you. It’s time for the true business.”


	8. Off-limits

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so, first I want to apologize for not updating this past weeks I just couldn't find the time to write nor post anything. But I'm back on track and I'll work hard to keep posting every week as I planned. I also tried to make this chapter a bit longer to make it up for the wait. That's all, please enjoy and give as much feedback as you feel like doing, I truly love reading your comments.
> 
> ~***~

One of the fanciest mansions shined bright in the distance, all of its windows irradiating light from expensive chandeliers hanging on every single room. Youngjae mouthed a “wow” when he saw Jb entering in its garden and parking next to other classy cars.

“Don’t be so tense! As Jaebum said, let us do the talking and it’d be fun!” Bambam palmed his shoulder as they left the vehicle and walked towards the building. Music was so loud they could hear it from the yard and while they entered, the neophyte couldn’t see where the “business” was inside what seemed to be indeed, a party. A party for the upper class in fact.

Everywhere he looked there were men in white, black and velvet tuxedos sipping champagne from their glasses and sharing their cigarettes with dancing shameless beautiful women. A modern version of the Great Gatsby. Suddenly, he didn’t feel overdressed with that cape, but melted with the whole atmosphere of the place. Their group kept walking past all the other guests, went up marble stairs until Jaebum stopped for half a second in front of closed doors guarded by two men armed with riffles across their chests. The scene broke Youngjae’s astonishment, who felt as if a hammer smashed a glass inside his head and stepped back instinctively, his back hitting Yugyeom, who smiled subtly but didn’t move. They only stayed there long enough for their leader to pronounce what could be the magic words to Alibaba’s treasure cave, with half a sharped smile, as he pushed the wooden surface.

 “He’s waiting for us.”

Inside the room, the group faced exactly what their new member would have expected in a movie: five men with more expensive suits, laughing, with a Cuban cigar in their hand and gorgeous ladies on their laps. Suddenly, silence occupied the room, except for the voice of a man in his fortys sitting behind a wide desk.

“Just on time, Beom. Girls, why don’t you go and have some fun downstairs?”

With that, the rest of the men whispered something to their companions, who got up with bright smiles and Youngjae noticed how some of them received small bags of white powder before leaving the room. But his eyes stared at one girl in particular, with raven hair and a short silver dress. She probably noticed it, because she winked at him while walking by their side.

 

“Off-limits buddy, look at her forearm.” Mark pointed with low voice. The neophyte couldn’t do anything but catch what looked like a tattoo in a glimpse, not even ask what he meant, because the elder man spoke again.

 

“I see you have new recruits.”

“What’s the job this time?” Jb answered.

“Oh come on, sit down, sip some of my finest liquor and kiss a couple of my girls before asking me about business, don’t you bloodsuckers have manners?”

“Do humans always need to have the same non-sense chit-chat instead of getting to the point?”

No one could say if both of the leaders were talking seriously or just joking around, but the argument ended with Bambam letting himself fall on a divan with a loud yawn and Jaebum rolling his eyes before lightly pushing Youngjae forward with one hand.

“YJ, this is our partner, Mr. Ghym.” Then, he lowered his voice until it was just a whisper in the newcomer’s ear. “Whatever happens, don’t show any sign of pain.”

 

The boy frozed, he was already lost enough in this whole situation but that order would have blown the air out of his lungs if they had still worked. Again, the other man pushed him forward and he found himself walking to the desk as an automat, one foot after the other, his hand extended to shake Mr. Ghym’s one, who greeted him with a smile.

 

“Half partner, half boss, but your friend seems to hate that term.”

And, once again, pain. Burning pain against his palm. The same pain he had felt when the sunlight touched his skin. Youngjae lowered his gaze to where the pain was coming from, only to discover that that “boss” had pressed something against it. He gulped, clenched his teeth, closed his fingers around the item and moved it closer to himself, trying to keep a poker face: a silver necklace, in the shape of a triangle.

 

When he gave his back to his new acquaintance, everyone else in the room was staring at him, and they all burst in a laugh at the same time, leaving him even more confused than before.

 

“Well, he did better than Yugyeom for sure.” One of the suited men said, before giving another puff.

 

“Oh shut up, Eun-Kyung, Mark was the one who almost punched your boss in his pretty face when you did it to him.” The so-called protested.

 

The neophyte didn’t make a sound, in an attempt to guess what the hell was going on. Jaebum came closer to him, squeezed his shoulder and took the necklace from his hand, to throw it back to the table. “So, now that we’ve done the presentations and pulled the welcoming prank, why don’t you boys go downstairs and have some real fun? Me and Mark can deal with the negotiations for today.”

 

The following hours were a mess in which Youngjae experimented the effects of hard drugs on his new body: unlike alcohol, they did affect vampires though only for a brief, intense time of great fun. It was even better to discover how they calmed the thirst of blood, stimulating his brain enough to quiet that primary instinct that usually screamed inside his head 24 hours a day, although it also decreased his senses. It was during one of these trances that he changed looks with the same girl he had seen upstairs, who smiled at him and shook another bag of cocaine before running away through a corridor, and he followed her without hesitation.

 

It didn’t take him long to find her, yet, after pinning her up against the wall and a couple of sloppy kisses, she escaped again. His body didn’t take long to metabolize the psychotropic, and that lead to his beast instinct to take control and start running again after his pray. He was chasing her through the doors to the garden, when a hand grabbed his shoulder.

 

“And I thought I had you—”

“We said no hunting alone.” The neophyte turned around, not expecting to hear that male voice, only to get a judging glance from Jaebum.

“I wasn’t—”

“And I clearly heard Mark telling you she was off-limits.” The leader pointed at him, a serious expression across his face. “You’re still on trial period, don’t fuck things up.”

 

Suddenly, Youngjae felt a burning anger climbing up his body and taking over his thoughts, not even realizing what he was saying until he was done talking.

 

“Or what?! What are you gonna do about it?” The newbie shove away Jb’s hand and pushed him back. “I’ve done everything you asked me too. For a whole fucking month! My entire life has changed when I didn’t ask for it, I lost everything I had. And you haven’t answered me a single bloody question. What will you do if I disobey, huh? Kick me out? Kill me?”

 

He threw his head back, a hysterical laugh coming out from his lips and whole body shaking from it. “Too bad Lim Jaebum, I’m already dead! Go ahead, try it! Show me what happens to the vampires that defy your orders, oh great leader.”

 

Nothing mattered anymore, he had kept all of those emotions hidden under his own curiosity for this new condition, and now he was fed up with everything and everyone. It didn’t surprise him when the other man approached, receiving him with open arms: may be a good hit would bring him back to his senses, or just make him feel something human. He also knew that Jb couldn’t really hurt him easily, the neophyte abilities were stronger and trained after all. But, to his own astonishment, the leader didn’t punch nor kick him: instead, he was pressing him against the wall, an arm against his throat as the other hand hold YJ’s silk shirt in a fist.

“Listen to me.” His tone was marked by a cold fury that contrasted with the strength he was employing to keep the other vampire in that position. “These men are the only ones that can help us find whoever transformed you, since you can’t remember a fucking thing. And if you touch or hurt one of the girls under their protection there’d be a conflict of interests that I don’t have time to deal with right now. So, you are going to get some fresh air, cool down and lay low until we are done with our part of the agreement with Mr. Ghym and then, may be, we’ll solve your doubts after you have experienced how things truly work around here.”

 

He looked around to check nobody had witnessed their brief encounter and let go of Youngjae’s body right before raising his voice to it’s usual level. “You are free to leave anytime, like any of us. But if you choose to stay, we already stated the terms.”

 

With that said, he pressed something against the neophyte’s chest before proceeding to walk down the corridor. “This guarantees you safe-passage around Mr.Ghym’s men. You’ve got an hour before we go home, make up your mind, Choi Youngjae.”


	9. Mafia and silver cases

The following days Youngjae kept himself apart from the others. He spent his free time locked up in his room, killing time. It’s true he wasn’t a proper prisioner, but he felt trapped. The joy and excitement from previous weeks had lead to a dull disappointment, his usual loud personality gone. There were still a few hours before the dawn so the moment Jaebum appeared around the living room, the neophyte stopped playing videogames, went back to his cave and after wasting some energy doing pushups, he laid down in bed, as if he could sleep.

 

He had tried to call home, but every single time someone picked up the phone, he would run out of words and immediately hung up. So he took out his phone and dialed his mom’s number again, to obtain the same result.

"Youngjie, is that you? -he froze, the item in his hand. At the other side his mother wouldn’t even hear his breathing, since he didn’t have one anymore.- Youngjie, we miss you. It doesn’t matter what’s going on, please come home."

And her voice broke as she began to cry. The boy couldn’t stand it any longer. Not only the feeling of missing his family but also the not missing it. This new life had taken away part of his emotions too, everything seemed less moving, and that frustrated him even more. He hadn’t cried in this whole time, nor he felt as sad as he should be.

With a quick move, he smashed his phone against the wall and when he turned around, a figure tended him a book.

“I saw you reading those the other day.” Bambam explained with a smile as he pointed to a bookshelf in front of them. “It doesn’t have much more information about us than the one you’ve already found but…”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“At least it’ll keep you entertained for a while.” The boy sat by Youngjae’s bed, not expecting for an answer before speaking again. “Jaebum wants us to have a strategical meeting today, so be at the living room in half an hour.”

Youngjae didn’t answer, just raised both eyebrows at his roommate, he was already used to not getting answers about literally any plan and it would make no difference to complain about it nor about following Jb’s orders.

“Listen.” Bambam sighed and remained in silence for a second to make sure nobody else was around. “This whole… household doesn’t pay itself, you know? I mean, not just the rent. We’ve got special windows for the sun and we usually need to make expenses on… information or secrets. And our daily jobs can’t pay it all. So, we need other sources of income for living comfortably.”

 

“And with other sources of income you mean Mr.Ghyms money, right?” He wanted to use the word _mafia_ to be more accurate, but managed to changed it last minute.

 

Bambam let out a nervous laugh but nodded. “Our nature makes us easy targets if someone finds out about it so having powerful allies helps quite a lot. Anyways, I’ll leave you with your book. Don’t be late.”

 

And like that, after the most revealing conversation he’d had since he moved in, YJ was left alone, again. He began reading because of pure boredom: another “scientific study” about vampires. He’d only found a few useful data on the ones he’d read before such as vampire’s intolerance to silver, holy water, sunlight and crucifixes and a few theories about their inhuman abilities, though he expected them to be handy in the future, even if it was just to avoid being tricked by a necklace, as he witnessed with the gang’s welcoming joke on him. May be if he investigated enough he could actually leave and survive on his own.

 

When the clock marked the time of the meeting, he interrupted his reading and took the chain with the triangle Jb had given him, although he didn’t put it on. Rebellious on his own way. They were all sitting around in the living room except for their leader, who appeared a couple minutes later, clearly surprised to find the rookie there.

 

“Mark, did you get the map?”

The one-so-called nodded and extended a piece of paper over the dinning room’s table, a few spots and streets already marked with different colors.

“Great. Gentlemen, our target is this man here: Gravedigger.” Jaebum showed the picture of a bald, strong middle-aged man on his phone screen and passed it around. “He’s refuging in a small apartment, the yellow circle. We’ll attack tonight. Mr. Ghym wants our usual work but…”

 

“Here comes the trouble.” Yugyeom whispered to Bambam, sitting right beside him.

“The police might get there any minute, so we’ll have to be faster than ever.”

“What?!” All of the men around the table asked at the same time.

“Since when do we move around the same perimeter as the police? It’s unnecessary exposure.” Mark protested, as he stared at the map.

“This man knows we’re going after him. Well, at least he expects us to. He failed Mr. Ghym’s and then tried to save his ass by selling the police information about his boss’ business. But our partner has men among the security forces, you know that, so they tricked our target and… we believe he took a little girl hostage.”

 

“You think?” Yugyeom squinted his eyes at Jb.

“The six-years-old daughter of a police officer went missing this morning, and Gravedigger just called them to start negotiations. Luckily, one of our men took the call, that will gain us some time. We’ve got his phone tapped.”

“But with a child involved… shouldn’t we let the police manage it?” Youngjae had tried to bite his tongue without succeeding on it.

Jb shook his head with a sigh, a courtain of dark hair falling over his eyes as he followed some imaginary way on the city map in front of him with his fingertips. “Mr. Ghyms wants to handle his own businesses, we already knew that.”

“So what’s the plan?” Bambam clapped his hands with impatience.

“The usual, just avoid the cops. We’ll get there from rooftop of the building beside the apartment and leave as three groups.” Jb pointed the place with his index finger. “Yugyeom, Bambam, you’ll take the road to the garbage dump and I’ll pick you two up there. Mark, you and Youngjae will comeback underground.”

“What about our signature?”

“I’ll leave it at the same time as the hostage and go find you.”

“Then we’re good to go.”

Suddenly everyone was on their feet except for Youngjae, who tried to make sense again of what he was witnessing: Yugyeom left a pile of black clothes on the table, as Bambam came back from the kitchen hugging a bunch of blood bags, spreading them all around the table. Meanwhile, Jb and Mark had lifted two silver cases from under the couches and were busy deciphering their lockers until a “clack” was heard and he could see different weapons and munition kept inside them. Even though there was no way for his body to need oxygen, the neophyte gasped, his eyes fixed on the guns and knifes and bullets near him as a hand palmed his shoulder.

“Your first real mission, Youngjie, aren’t you excited?” Yugyeom asked as cheerfully as usual.

The rookie frowned before nodding and took the blood bag his yellow-haired roommate offered him, while he observed Jaebum handing everyone a gun and a box of bullets before he fixed his eyes on the neophyte.

 

“I guess you’ve never shot a gun.” Waiting no response, their leader offered him a couple of knifes in their cases. “Your abilities are so good you’d probably don’t need them, but carry them on your belt, just in case.”

YJ had no time to add anything, since Bambam raised his hand before sipping some blood. “Drink up my hearties, yoho!”

“You’re never watching pirate movies again.” Mark laughed and rolled his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been so long since the last update and I'm so sorry for it, but now that I have more free time, I'll try to post more often and compensate you guys. As usual, every comment and respectful opinion is appreciated so don't be shy and thank you for reading!!


	10. Please

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit longer than usual and probably a lil' messier, since it was time to give you all some (I know what you are thinking: hallelujah) action. So please, enjoy it and don't judge it too harshly, I promise (hope) I'll get better in the future. X

There was no moon, it was gonna be an easy work: the only way to distinguish the seven all-in-dark figures would be having their ability of night sight. Jaebum observed his mates jumping one after another to the rooftop of the building, none of them having any difficulties, until himself and Youngjae were the only ones left. He looked at the rookie, who kept fidgeting with the triangular necklace and cleared his throat to catch his attention.

 

“Your turn. Don’t take too much impulse or you’d end up smashed against a window.” Jb was truly making an effort to avoid sounding harsh and as the other nodded, and clasped a hand around his elbow to make him stop for a second. “There’ll come a moment in there when I’ll ask you to hold yourself and I need you to do so. I’ll explain later. Can I trust you on this?”

 

“Can I trust you to explain?” The neophyte gave him half a smile, full of pride. Such a rebellious teen-like behavior that didn’t surprise the leader. Before he could roll his eyes with annoyance, Yj had already flied to the rooftop where the others awaited.

 

He took a deep breath, stepped back and ran without hesitation to the edge of the ceiling they had been standing on. The apartments block where Gravedigger hided was taller, so after being in the air for a couple seconds, Jaebum got hold of the stone cornice, as his knee bumped against the wall. He almost laughed instead of complaining. _Such a newbie mistake._ When he easily lifted his body, Bambam was staring at his frame with amusement. “You jumped too hard, didn’t you?”

 

“Our Jaebeomah is getting old.” Yugyeom chanted. “Losing faculties.”

“Shut up and help Mark to open that bloody door.”

The boys laughed and shrugged before joining the eldest while he pulled the iron door towards themselves, getting it open with a dry “bang”. Youngjae’s eyes jumped from the now unblocked path to the building’s stairs and Jaebum’s back, since he was squatted on the corner of the rooftop, eyes fixed in some moving lights far away.

_The police_ , the neophyte realized and gasped out of pure habit as he recognized the alarms in the distance. The leader should have noticed, cause he turned around with an amused smile, stood up and clapped his hands.

“Okay boys, you know the rules. Let’s have some fun.”

And with those words the rest of the gang rushed downstairs running at the speed of light, headed to the floor where Gravedigger was. Youngjae joined the race, but his vampire side seemed to overtake his mind and body once again and after a couple seconds he found himself jumping through the gap between stairs and raising a hand to hold onto the sixth floor handrail. He felt his whole weight hanging from his shoulder and let out a groan of pain, enough to take him back to his senses. With one easy movement, he lifted his body and jumped over the rail, facing a wooden door as the others reached his side. If the neighbors had heard them, no one dared to peek.

The neophyte found himself surprised when he missed a panting on his mates, but his supernatural instinct took him away from his human mind while Jaebum teared the door down with a hard kick right on the lock, the five of them running inside. The only thing they found in the apartment was a barricade right in the middle of the living room, built mostly by a wooden table and a sofa: two eyes frozen by fear looking at them from behind it. And at the further corner from them, sirens could be heard through the windows, revealing the police had finally arrived and they didn’t have much time.

“I see you were waiting for us, Gravey” their leader spoke, arms crossed in front of his chest. “Let the child go so we can sort this out like men.”

The others had formed two lines by his sides. Bambam was distractedly playing with a black glock between his hands, Mark stared at the mountain of furniture with a wide savage smile and Yugyeom focused at his nails cuticles.

“You’re not men. You’re monsters.” Youngjae could hear the merciless assassin teeth chattering and smirked knowing the man was shaking in pure fear.

“Right.” Jb clicked his tongue, coming forward and closer to the centre of the room. “But I think we can all agree you are quite monstrous too.”

“If you take one more step I’ll shoot her!”

And that was the moment all of them saw the little girl held against his arms with the canon of a silver gun pressed against her tiny temple, face covered in silent tears and her whole body trembling. Youngjae was the only one who tried to move closer, but he was stopped by Mark’s arm blocking his way. “Let him handle it.”

“Alright, alright, we’ll stay right here.” Jaebeom’s voice sounded dangerously smooth. “Any other demands, sir?”

“Tell the alien-haired one to put the gun down. Leave all your guns on the floor!”

“Well, you heard him.” The boys nodded and bent down, except for YJ, who specifically remembered to be carrying knives, not a firearm and clenched his fists: one around the handle of one of them and the other around the necklace he was still carrying in his pocket. “You too, Diggity.”

The following seconds seemed to occur in slow-motion in front of the group’s eyes. A slight head move from Jb. The mafia runaway pulling the gun away from the girl. Bambam back on his feet, weapon still in his hand. The sound of shots being fired. A scream. Glass shattering. And eventually, the whole room summing in darkness. The blue hair vampire had shot directly to the lightbulb over his head at the same time Yugyeom had aimed at the fugitive’s hand by pulling the trigger while jumping in the air.

When Youngjae could understand what just happened, Jaebum was already on top of the barricade, watching how Gravedigger stumbled backwards holding his own hand against his chest until his back reached the window. Mark made a circle as fast as a bolt and joined the neophyte’s side holding the kid in his arms with unexpected care, rocking her against his chest and the other two appeared on both sides of their prey, giving him no way out. The only light in the apartment was the one the city projected through the glass with some hints of red and blue from the police cars, reflecting grotesque shadows over the men features as they smiled widely, revealing their fangs. And in that instant, something clicked again in his new vampiric mind: the man was already bleeding from the wound in his hand. Before he could think about anything else, his body moved forward, seeking for its fuel, jumped over the turned table and landed right in front of Gravedigger, his hands holding him up so hard against the window that a loud cracking of the glass could be heard, his back facing Jaebum.

The killer squeaked like a mouse under his grip, seeking for air. The accelerated pulse on his carotid only fed the newbie’s cravings and he passed his tong along the free skin between the jaw and his own hand. Although this time his motives were slightly different: usually his old human logical mind fought constantly with the thirst of destruction his new condition had filled his brain with; but he was facing someone willing to end a child’s life to save his own skin and that brought together the anger of both sides, awarding his primary instincts with some moral code that reinforced them.

His victim fought back, kicking and gasping, his hands scratching Youngjae’s wrists and face. At some point he managed to reach a knife from between his clothes and stabbed him between his ribs but his captor didn’t let go, didn’t feel any pain. It all just made his excitement grow. With another easy shake, the neophyte smashed his head one more time against the glass, the cracks spreading all across it now, knife falling to their feet.

“Jaebeom-ah” Mark called in the distance, seated on the floor and hand stroking the child’s hair.

And with that, their leader squeezed the younger’s shoulder hard enough to make him listen to his voice. “Let him go. Now.”

“Why? He wasn’t gonna let the girl go. That knife was meant to hear, wasn’t it’, rat?” Gravedigger could only let out a high-pitched sound, YJ’s hand pressing his neck harder.

But Jaebum didn’t let go either and pressed his shoulder once more, whispering to his ear.

“I need you to remember what you promised me before getting in here. I trusted you, now you have to keep your promise and trust me.”

“The special forces are arriving now. We don’t have much time” Yugyeom urged him, looking down from where he was standing and with his hearing focused six floors below them.

“We’re almost done. Am I right, Youngjae?” His voice sounded calmed and even joyful, but right after that went back to his cold low voice. “Trust our ways, please.”

It was the first time since the rookie joined the gang that their leader had actually asked him for something. The first time since he died that someone addressed him with a “please” and not a plain order or threat. Slowly, the so called felt his muscles relax and removed his hand from a semi-conscious Gravedigger’s throat who fell on his knees; then joined the elder’s side.

Jaebum sighed (clearly a habit he had never lost from his time alive) and let go of the other’s shoulder. “Thank you.” He turned around and directed a half smile towards Yugyeom and Bambam. “Now fellas, lets show these amateurs how we do things around here.”

Both of the vampires nodded and charged his guns again. Their victim didn’t try to move or talk anymore but stared at them with panicked eyes.

“You see, we can’t let you go now and spread our little secrets and Mr. Gym’s business, I’m pretty sure you knew that. And we can’t finish you as wild as we’d like to either because then the police will know what we _are._ ” His gaze wasn’t fixed on the dying man in front of him, but focused on Youngjae instead. “Though since I’m having a pretty good day, I can promise you it will end really soon.”

JB turned around, whispered something else in the rookie’s ear and headed to join Mark, picking the girl up in his arms. Three more shots were heard, none of them lethal. And right after them, the neophyte had placed himself right behind the killer, all of his mental strength focused on ignoring the smell of blood leaving his body through the bullet-holes. Holding his prey’s neck still with one hand, he sliced Gravedigger’s throat with a quick move of the knife in the other, then proceeded to turn the head around and upwards, to tear it apart from the rest of the body, every bone, muscle and cartilage creaking as he did so. Surprisingly, he didn’t feel any remorse, no guilt, no disgust, just a burning fire running through his whole body, deciding for him.

“We must deliver his head, the rest is all yours. And be fast, the police is about to enter the building.” Had been the leader’s command. He threw it as if it were a rugby ball across the room to Mark’s hand.

“Sorry for my manners” he said teasingly and buried his mouth on the bleeding corpse, all of his senses flooded with endless delight, both sides of his mind quiet and peaceful for the first time in a long time. “But you forgot to tell me to bring a fork.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I said earlier I'm not that used to this type of writing so feel free to leave any feedback in the comments. And let me just tell you, things are getting interesting for our boys from now on. Thank you for your time and hope you enjoyed the reading!!


	11. Elevator

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again I want to apologise for not updating in a long time, but English is not my first language and I'm also really not used to this type of writting so it's taking me longer than expected to develop my ideas in the nicest way. I just hope you're enjoying the story and that you feel free to comment anything about it down below.

They had received the call on their way to the parking lot of the police station. Exchanging a look, the two officers stopped walking to their respective cars and approached to the one they shared during the working hours, Jinyoung behind the wheel. Something had clicked in his brain as soon as the voice on the radio pronounced the neighbourhood where reinforcements were needed.

“It’s Tigers territory.” Jackson stated. The Golden Tigers had been teasing the city police for so long they were almost like old friends: everybody knew what their business were about and most of the means they used to get a huge amount of profit that made the highest ranked members drown in money, but they were, at the same time, so clean and discreet there was no way of catching a single one of them. The force could only wait and crouch, like a cat waiting for a mouse to come out from its hiding inside a wall’s hole, until the criminal organization made a tiny mistake from where to start digging. Officer Wang clearly remembered the map his partner had displayed in front of him a couple nights before, every part of the city marked by colors, tacks and red laces; the type of old school work only someone like him would still use instead of making a design on their laptop. Until a couple months ago, every mysterious crime occurred in the last five years, highlighted with a blue circle, spread all around the city almost randomly, but they had found a pattern: all the dots connected still avoid the Golden Tiger’s territory, outlining its shape perfectly. Which left them with two possible scenarios: either the gang was the one responsible of the disappearances or whoever was truly doing it had enough brains to not mess with Mr. Ghym’s people. However, lately, not only the pattern and frecuency of the crimes had changed, but also the victims’ profiles: they were leaving corpses all inside and out the Tigers Zone, and now the number of young male victims was highly unbalanced against the female ones. It seemed like an imitator or a challenger. Whatever the answers were, there was only one way to find out.

And this had seemed like the perfect occasion, since one of Ghym’s most ancient hitmen had surrendered in exchange of amnesty and protection. But the call broke the small hope Jinyoung had gained on finally getting some answers: Gravedigger had fled, and on his way kidnapped their captain’s daughter on her school’s front door. Now all units operative had been solicited in one of the tigers’ safe houses and not only they feared he would soon probably be joined by some of the mafia own and best killer squad but the girl getting caught in a crossed fire.

Officer Park took a look to their right as they left the garage, his partner reading his mind instantly.

“Let’s grab a coffee, on me.”

He barely gave the other man time to stop the engine before leaving the vehicle on his way to the gas station and was back in less than a couple minutes later, two steamy paper cups in his hands. “Luckily for you, I couldn’t flirt with your cute shop assistant, it seems to be his free night.”

“Lucky him.” Jinyoung rolled his eyes and started the car, heading to the suburbs.

It wasn’t hard to find the address they were given through the radio and as soon as they let a foot outside, they putted on their bulletproof vests and approached to the other units gathered around the apartment buildings.

“Orders?”

“Hold fire as long as we can. We need Gravedigger alive, not to mention Officer Woo’s girl.” Their superior, Sargent Jung, explained to the newcomers, while they charged their guns. “I’ve got men in both exits and in two snippers in those windows, just in case some of Ghym’s men try to show up. You two will go behind the special agents, under Mrs. Soo’s command. They’re about to get in.”

The couple nodded and exchanged looks with the woman, who made a sign so they followed her with the swats and then handed them helmets and protective night vision glasses.

“Woo said his daughter can recognize you two so you’ll go behind us, take her and get out. Other team has already advised the neighbors to lock themselves in. We’ll deal with the other bastard, understood?”

“Yes, Sir.” Jackson assured, speaking for both of them. Jinyoung was too busy staring at the only window on the sixth floor enlightened, the shine muted by thick curtains. They had met the child several occasions, since it wasn’t always easy to find a nanny when they were called on guard, and Jackson tended to get along really well with children, so they had spent a lot of time doing paperwork while keeping an eye on the infant.

He had no time to say whatever was on his mind, cause suddenly, the light disappeared.

“Something’s wrong.” Sargent Soo pressed her in-ear and made contact with their sentinels. She charged her riffle and spoke again to her team. “Wang, Park, I want you five feet behind us at all times. We need to move! Go, go, go!”

Everything else happened in a rush. The squadron run up the stairs in synchronized march and stopped at both sides of the house entrance while recovering their breath, Jinyoung holding his gun tightly. Sargent Soo counted three with her fingers and proceeded to bring the door down, her team getting inside at speedlight. The apartment was a mess, furniture and glass smashed all around the living room, their boots standing on something sticky: blood. The lifeless body where it belonged had been left near the window. When officer Park checked over his shoulder to whisper to his partner, he found himself alone. The rest of the agents revised the other stances, and he headed out and looked up, following his instincts: uniform boots were stumbling several floors upstairs, so he got ready to go after them, when their superior’s voice was heard on their earpieces.

“They’re gone, check the rest of the building. We can’t be that late.”

The raven-haired man nodded even though no-one could see him, and sprinted all the way downstairs, heading to the street. Maybe they had taken some exit they had missed, or even one to an underground parking. As he was reaching the second floor, the elevator’s bell rang, making him turn his head to it, and couldn’t believe what his eyes saw. Before he could say anything, his body was inside it, kneeling in front of a little girl that was looking at him with shocked eyes.

“This is officer Park, tell Woo we’ve got his daughter. She’s safe and sound.” He sent through his head set, kept his gun in its belt and opened his arms as widely and slowly as he could, showing the child a gentle smile. “Hi, I’m Official Jin-jin. Do you remember me?”

The kid nodded, cleaning her face with the sleeve of her sweater, but didn’t move a single foot. “Wanna play with mi lantern?” Jinyoung got it out of his belt, knowing how much she enjoyed to turn on and off the portable light, and watched as she took it in her tiny hands. “Can I come closer? Your dad is waiting for us outside.”

She nodded once again while biting her lip and this time she did approach to the policeman arms, who lift her up and hold her tight, one hand caressing her hair as he continued their way out of the building. On the front door, they came across Jackson, all covered in sweat, and who was carrying something in his right hand. His angry expression was softened the minute his eyes met Woo’s daughter’s ones.

“Wang Puppy!” She screamed, almost jumping from Officer Park’s arms to the brunette’s ones.

“Hey, lioness!!! Did you miss me?” He rocked her in a hug now and passed her to her father’s embrace as soon as he ran to them.

“She seems alright, but take her to the paramedics so they can examine her.” Jinyoung told him, their captain just nodding and silently crying without relaxing his grip around the infant for the shortest second.

“I lost them.” Jackson grumbled once they were gone. Then showed his partner a silver necklace with triangular shape. “But they let this fall on their way out. They fucking jumped from the rooftop, Jinyoung!”

“How many of them?” “Two. Tall, hooded. All in black.”

“Well, they’ll get some fingerprints from this, it won’t take us long to find those bastards.” He examined the jewelry piece hanging from his fingers without touching its main pendant, later passing an arm around the other’s shoulders. “And you and I are gonna have to fill reports and explain why my partner left disobeying our superior’s orders tomorrow, so we better get home and have a good nap. Also, you need a shower.”

“So do you, smart-ass. Drive me home.”

What none of the officers had noticed that night while abandoning the apartment store was how the girl who they’d rescued waved goodbye to the elevator doors as they walked away, which made Jaebum smile widely. He’d never be more thankful in his non-life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your time and encouragement, I feel like we were discovering how the plot unfolds together, and let me tell you it's about to get interesting. Please be patient and stay tunned!! Xx


	12. Bedtime story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was time for some background about our boys!!

Mark and Youngjae were the last ones arriving back at the apartment. After letting the neophyte wash himself in the bathroom sink, they had literally jumped out of Gravesdigger’s bedroom window, running non-stop at speed light until they reached the underground station. Right before getting inside, they had removed their dark hoodies (newbie’s one still stained with the killer’s blood), showing colorful t-shirts underneath, and turned around their face-masks too, also with intricate patterns on that side of the accessory as if it were designed by a high brand. Jaebum had also made them memorize where the security cameras were placed there at some point, so they knew when to keep their heads down. It was a master plan to blend in with the crowd that still moved around the city late night, but it had downsides too: it took them as much as it would take to a mundane.

The younger one was still flowing with energy, his body running on the fresh blood he had never had before. Mark had to hiss at him a few times so he would stop patting the wagon floor with his leg.

“You’re about to make a hole on the metro, keep your shit together.”

As an answer, YJ just nodded with a grunt. A couple hours earlier, he would have appreciated every single -and stinky- detail of the “underground experience”, being a reminiscence of his old life. He could still remember how huge it all had seemed the first time he was there after moving from his home town: a big scary yet exciting place, were all shades of gray mixed with every single tone of the rainbow all around. Now it just outraged him, feeling trapped within himself, unable to satisfy the hungry instinct that roared in his head, having to private it of the feast around them both.

Mark was aware, though. He once had been there, in some way or another, they all had. In fact, that’s why Jb had assigned the pair the long way home, so their new member could cool down at the same time he learnt how to control his gluttony. The older one thought that assignment should have been placed on Yugyeom instead, but the blond one played the “finder, keeper” card and they all knew he worked better with Bambam anyways.

So there they were, inside a suffocating vehicle -not that they could feel the heat- that definitely ran slower than they could, with the red haired placing a hand around Youngjae’s wrist everytime his jaw twitched (which meant every five seconds since the neophyte fixed his eyes constantly in the people around them, more than probably evaluating them as prays).

“You’ll learn to play dumb with yourself in a while.” He stated as they left the underground after taking two lines and seventeen stops. “It sucks, but you’ll get used to it anyways.”

“Sooo… vampires lifestyle sucks in every way, huh?” The youngest grinned at his own joke, a good sign of his head going back to its rational senses.

The night sharp breeze seemed to wake them up better than a dozen shots of expresso and Youngjae suddenly felt so at peace that it was unbearable to bring his eyes to the sky, afraid of somehow breaking down under the moonlight that now reflexed in his brand-new pale skin. They continued their way to the headquarters in silence, finding the leader alone and shirtless in the living room, drying his hair with a towel as if he had just woken up instead of having murdered a man in cold blood. The rookie could see a tattoo he could not recognize on his right shoulder, as well as a nipple-piercing decorating the other vamp’s torso.

“It took you longer than expected.”

“There aren’t many lines working at 4 AM.” Mark shrugged happily before dropping himself in the couch. “Maybe if we all had a shiny black LandRover we’d get home at decent times.”

“We all know you’d never give up that rusted skateboard of yours even for a Ferrari, old man.” Jb’s smile faded as he turned around to fix his gaze on YJ’s. “You smell like death, go get changed.”

“It’s the subway essence you wanted me to experience, asshole.”

The neophyte rolled his eyes but agreed silently about his body aroma which they all knew was made of blood and raw meat, heading to the room shared with Yugyeom. As soon as he stepped one foot inside, a loud pop was heard, followed by joyful howling. Before he could process what was happening, Bambam was showering their new member in champagne, everyone in the house cheering for him. YJ felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around to face the gentlest smile Jaebeom had ever offered him.

“You did well, welcome officially to the team.”

“You smell like death” Mark mimicked the other’s words half a minute ago. “Can’t believe you’re such an awful actor, Im Jaebeom.”

“Oh, shut up, you are no better.”

“Blablablah it’s our boy’s big night today, stop bickering and have some non-bloody champagne.” Bambam interrupted, handing them some glasses and filling each till the very top. “Although there’s still one tradition left, YJ.”

“Indeed” Yugyeom nodded from the other side of the dorm, kneeling next to something that looked pretty much like the big silver cases where they’d kept their weapons some time that look way further than the day before.

“Please tell me it’s not called shoot the newbie, I already got a blade wound on my ribs due to your ‘traditions’.” He asked, bringing a hand to the still-aching cut on his ribcage. With the adrenaline or whichever other hormone that kept vampires system running, he hadn’t even felt the cut until now.

“Well… this kinda involves guns too. But nah, you’re safe, pup. Yugyeom will also take care of it. That bastard probably used some silver-bathed knife.”

“Exactly, take your glasses to the living room and let me work with the kid already.”

The three older men rolled their eyes at the blond one and patted Youngjae’s shoulder before leaving the dormitory. Silence bathed the atmosphere again as the busy boy brought a chair next to his bed and took out some things that looked like painting pigments and… tattoo guns?

The neophyte observed him work without speaking a single word, by that time used to keep his questions to himself. Only a raised eyebrow betrayed him when the other eventually raised his gaze towards the brunette’s figure.

“Are you gonna stand there until the sunrise? Come on! And take off your shirt.”

YJ moved closer slowly and still confused with the whole situation: everytime he seemed to understand how that weird gang worked they came up with something that knocked him out of any logical assumption.

“People tend to buy me at least one dinner before such a request.” He commented, while throwing the cloth to the other side of the room carelessly. Once he had laid in bed, his fingers lined the borders of the wound, feeling it oddly warm.

Yugyeom did exactly the same right after, digging them inside the incision. The rookie almost jumped from the mattress with a howl of pain. “Silver indeed. You had a glamorous debut.”

He sighed and stepped back to grab something from under the bed: a chest he left on the brunette’s thighs while working on its locker.

“I have spoilt you our last ritual, but I guess we’ll have to leave your inking session for another time. You’d have liked it more though”. The blonde man smiled once he could get the box opened, taking out a first aid kit and some dark vials. “Hold this, close your eyes and stay still.”

Youngjae nodded, tightening his fingers around a roll of bandages. He heard a shattering glass as the other broke the vials and his advanced hearing could picture its content being aspired into a syringe. A spam ran over his whole body, making his eyes opened and almost leaping onto his roommate if he hadn’t pushed him back to bed by pressing the wound with his free hand.

“It’s 0 negative, the rarest serotype. It fastens our body regeneration. We keep it for emergency healings only.” The older member sounded focused, while getting ready the surgical sewing kit. YJ felt a frozen liquid drip into his cut which automatically led him into an almost sleepy-anesthetic state.

“Like old white ladies and caviar cream.”

“Like old white ladies and caviar cream.” His colleague smirked. “Now I’m about to sew the borders back together, okay? It’s a long slice, so it will take a bit. And the ribs are a sensitive spot, even for us. Just don’t move and follow my voice. Understood?”

With one more nod, YJ closed his eyes again.

“There I go.” The blond one pressed the needle against the skin for the first time and the neophyte swallowed nervously. “You had a lot of questions when we met, want to solve some doubts now?”

“You used to be a tattoo artist?” Youngjae shot what first came to mind, a bit saddened to discover he remained scared of needles even in his afterlife.

This time it was the elder’s turn to nod and hum. “I had a studio and an impressively-rising reputation. That’s how I met Bambam.”

“Bambam has tattoos too?!”

The newbie had seen some designs spread over Yugyeom’s body (a mandala on his ribcage, some flying birds that turned into music notes on his inner biceps, two Mexican skulls on his left hip and so on) but he had yet to find any of those in slim man’s skin. Somehow Bambam didn’t look like the tattooed guy type in his mind.

“A couple of them, indeed. Really old-school designs. Classy.” _That suits him better_ the younger thought, before the other went on. “He had magenta-ish hair back then and lots of money to spend. But let’s not rush into that yet, I’m telling you the history of my life!”

He sounded somehow childish with that complain, which contrasted with his hands steadiness as he stretched the surgical thread and got ready to tie another stitch. Youngjae had to fight the urge to laugh and raised his hands in surrender. “Okay okay, go on, Mr. Kim.”

“I was young and beautiful at that time. Same as now but a little bit naiver. And slightly more tanned. As I was saying, my name got famous between the younger clients after some experiments I made with fluorescent ink tattoos. Then some young millionaire came and asked me if I would do him a design with actual precious metals on it. Of course, I refused. Metals are toxic even in small amounts, even the silliest apprentice knows that. But he offered me a huge amount for it and kept coming denial after denial. I was living on my own already, got a troubled relationship with my mom and her fiancé and lots of bills to pay at the end of every month. I started to see it as an opportunity for my future: Kim Yugyeom, the tattoo artist of the Elite.” He lifted his free palm as if showing a billboard in front of them. “He paid for every single cent I spent on investigation and experiments with pigments, visited me at least once a week and called me up for meeting his friends in the best parties I’ve been to. A little weird, though, people going in and out of a thousand rooms, coming back by themselves or with other clothes on. Sounds fishy, doesn’t it?”

The one speaking stopped his work to examine how the scar was looking so far: he was midway-through it now. After irrigating the yet-opened part of it with some more 0 negative blood, he resumed the sewing along with the storytelling.

“I’m not a fool. Never been. It was just so… captivating. Easygoing.” He sighed, camouflaging what otherwise would have seem like a sad grin, and shook his head no. “I tried to stay away the first months, staying late at night reading medical articles about metals intoxications and chemical reports of various types. But I had been a loner for so long that the new environment felt overwhelming. Drugs and alcohol made an important point there too, if I am completely honest. I excused it all in the lifestyle of the wealthy ones, since I had never experienced it remotely before. And I was making progress with my art, so the outbalance always looked positive to me.”

Youngjae could do nothing but nod once again. It was the first time one of the guys shared his past with him since his arrival and he was afraid of breaking the atmosphere and missing that approach. Not to mention that both the anecdote and the fresh blood poured on his wound were acting combinedly as painkillers and even with that he felt half of his ribs on crepitant fire.

“The rich man was growing impatient after a year of waiting for my expensive brand new techniques. He threw a tantrum and eventually offered me -to call it someway- a more than intimidating ultimatum. As you should have already guessed my dearest client was indeed a vampire. His fortune and parties came from everywhere but a noble origin. He and his crew, most of them breathing regular humans, had made a bet by now: either I got to successfully tattoo them something in golden or silver ink, or I’d be served as their next exquisite. That’s when our Double B comes to play. The _maknae_ of that Riot Club. He volunteered as my life-saving guinea pig; which I thanked at first: you probably know by now that we are less likely to die of poisoning of any kind than the normies. And I remark _at first_ cause my not-any-more-friendly boss rewarded his bravery by obliging me to do it in silver, putting two lives on the edge that night.”

He stopped to clean some dry blood from his hands and stretched them afterwards, a good part of the injury unrepaired, and charged another shot on the syringe. Youngjae suspected it was just a halt for dramatic purposes but pronounced no word about it.

“Bambam already had a coral snake on his right thigh and I agreed to color in the white stripes of it with diluted silver pigment. If you ask him now, he’d play it cool but I could see and smell the fear in his eyes that night as I turned on my equipment. And he was shaking in pain under my needle more than you are tonight. Nevertheless, we both stood our ground and succeeded. They spared my life but I was already knee-deep into their troubles so my only way out was to get transformed into what I am now. They would allow me to keep my studio though, and exploit the new business branch that had both ruined and save my life. But when I woke up after my forever last breath, things had changed: vampires are territorial and an emerging gang had taken us by surprise, eradicating every single one of them. Except for BamBam and myself. Our friend talked our way out of it, presenting us as some kind of doctor Frakenstein and its monster and an exclusive way for Mr. Ghym’s brother, Seokmin, to identify his allies -which turned out to be our dead rich investor’s goal from the very beginning-.”

“Mr. Ghym has a brother?” Youngjae couldn’t recall anyone in the room with their business partner that looked like him at all.

“Had. But I’m getting there.” The yellow-haired one was also about to be done with fixing the cut in the other’s thorax. “They kept us as their pets for months, to make sure the ink in Bambam system didn’t affect him while doing the lowest duties for the organization at the same time I worked for the rest of their mafia non-stop. It went on for almost another year in which it felt we had sold our souls to the Devil. Remember I just said vampires are territorial creatures? Well, our Jaebeomah is the best proof of that. He and Mark knew about us two and made contact with Bambam for information half a dozen of times, nothing really useful but they knew he was risking both of our necks for merely breathing in their direction. The Ghym’s vampiric team was still a secret project, with only Seokmin himself and a few of his closest men being actually transformed, so it was easy for our JB to kick their asses and present Seokmin’s head at his brother feet. Aaaand long story short: we got a new job!”

Yugyeom cutted the last portion of thread to finish the sewing with a triumphant smile on his face, while taking the bandages from the rookie’s hands and soaking them with the blood left in the vial to cover the scar aftertwards. The sun was about to rise outside.

“That will still ache for a few days, but I think we are done.”

He stood up and stretched his muscles, sore from keeping the same posture for so long.

“What about Jaebum then?” Youngjae asked with open-wide eyes.

“What about him?” Gyeom mimicked the other’s expression.

“How was he transformed? Where does he come from?” The brunette inquired, almost mad at being mocked.

“You’ll have to get more than a lil’ scratch to earn that bedtime story, kiddo!” Their leader stated right before moving away from the door-frame where he had been standing who-knows-how-long-for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, thank you all for reading my stuff even though it takes me years to update it. I'm really reeaaaally trying to do it more often but I can't promise anything about it. What I can and do promise is that things are about to get even-more-interesting and that you'll get to know about the rest of the member's personal history in upcoming chapters. What did you think about this one?? I personally love tattoo-culture and thought we could use some chill time after the previous full-action parts.
> 
> Also massive thanks to Fat for being my darkipedia and shoutout to Mario for Bambam's tattoo idea.  
> Please stay tuned and once again, thank you so much for reading me. Xx


	13. Extra hours

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally some interesting encounters, fellas!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! It took me two whole freaking months to update and I guess I should stop apologizing for it but I can't though. This is what happens when you procrastinate for too long and responsabilities bite you in the ass. So kids, study everyday, drink lots of water and eat your veggies.

“No fucking way!” Jinyoung had raised from his chair at their Police Chief office, throwing a hand on his desk. Even Jackson, who knew him so well, was taken by surprise. “We followed the orders. We found Woo’s girl.”

“Officer Wang split from the team against your commander’s assignment.” The so-called lowered his head at the reminder, fists clenched against his uniform trousers. He was aware that they’d probably get a speech about trusting their higher-ranked coworkers’ criteria, maybe even a warning for disobedience but…

“With all my respects, boss, month suspension is too much and you know that. We’ve showed exceptional records since joining this department. These past months have been a nightmare in terms of shifts and duties, you know that too. We’ve been invested 100% in the disappearance cases by ourselves, as you asked, and now for a wrong move, we are being punished harshly.”

Jackson’s voice remained calmed during his speech, both for him and Jinyoung’s sake. He felt guilty enough already for dragging his partner into his owns mistakes, he couldn’t stand knowing that now their jobs were at risk for it too.

“You want me to be honest? Alright. The suspects escaped. We lost our golden witness. Our chance to see this damned city through Mr. Ghyms eyes, gone.” The woman turned around from the window she had been looking out through, laid both of her hands in the table between them and held Officer Wang’s gaze showing no signs of hesitation, neither of anger. “And there’s gotta be someone to blame. Soo isn’t gonna take the blame for someone who is not part of her men _and_ who did disobey her orders midway through a mission, no matter the result of it. Woo can not defend you either since he was implicated in the case. And now some random dude handed us a mail box with your fucking name on it, Park Jinyoung, the head of our victim kept inside it, for God’s sake!”

She raised her voice, looking now eagerly at the standing man in front of her, who remained stoically silent, arms crossed over his chest. Moonbyul sighed and pinched her nose-bridge with tired expression.

“I like it as little as you do but there is no other way to clear this issue. I commended you a hard task that has slowly consumed you, got you burnout and probably affected your decision making. The last part is what I’ll write in the report and of course it will be kept away from the press.” She had been slowly lowering her tone, and now her whole body posture seem to have changed as she took a sit again, half relieved half exhausted after having explained her choice. “Think of it as an opportunity to clear your head. How long has it been since your last holidays? Or since your last full night sleep? Honestly, you two look like crap.”

She directed the pair a friendly smile that in the nearest past would have gotten a reflection in both of men faces. It wasn’t one of those times, though.

“Don’t play the colleague card now, Byulie, it doesn’t suit you while you’re fucking firing us.”

“You’re not getting it, Jinyoung.” She had forgotten how stubborn her old partner could be. “I’m saving your bitter ass. All of this office knows where your loyalty lays but there have been issues lately, information slips and secrets spread around the Golden Tigers, we can’t trust anyone and my superiors want someone’s head for it. Both of yours are in line right now. We’re working on finding out who the rat is, but meanwhile you two certainly need to lay low until this whole situation calms down if you truly wish to be back. That’s the difference between being fired and getting a suspension. It sucks, I know. And I’m sorry, I can assure you that. I’m hands-tied on this matter. Pretty sure your busy brain will find ways to keep you occupied. For example, sending me the inform about that last job that you never handed. Now give me your plaques.”

“This is so fucking wrong.” Jackson mumbled.

None of the two officers in front of her showed the slightest sign of annoyance or regrets as they left their ID badges on their superior’s desk. Without exchanging a look, nor a word more, the couple headed to the parking lot, heads high and jaws clenched.

“Want me to take you home?” Officer Wang asked once they got to his red Chevrolet Camaro.

Jinyoung shook his head no with half a shy smile: the last thing they needed now was for the older one to feel like he was being blamed for their suspension.

“I want to start my holidays by walking home. It’ll clear my mind.”

“Alright.” Jackson got in his car as Jinyoung waited aside while he started the engine. Right before leaving, the driver rolled his window down. “Jinyoung-ah.”

“Huh?”

“She didn’t ask for our guns.”

The so-called nodded, reciprocating the suggestive smile on his partner’s lips. “She didn’t ask for our guns. See you tomorrow at 6 pm.”

Jackson showed him his left thumb before driving away and Jinyoung sighed at the car’s plate disappearing from his eyes. He and Moonbyul had known each other long enough to read the other’s gestures crystal clear. She was truly sorry but at the same time her old partner had sensed some shine in her eyes, the kind of look that would make him notice she was playing a bluff during an interrogation. Not to add the fact that she knew how invested her two best agents had got in the disappearance cases. And now she forgot to collect their official weapons. It all summed up to one case scenario: Jackson and Jinyoung had received an undercover green flag to work on their own for a while. No bureaucratic boundaries attached.

It was almost midday and Officer Park was having some time for himself after what looked like ages and no idea of what to do with it. Still wearing his uniform, he headed to the gas station in need of some crappy caffeine to make his mind about what to do next. Plus, the punk kid that worked there usually offered him pretty good chat.

Nothing seemed to go well on that awful autumn morning, since Jinyoung’s expectations crashed once he stepped inside the shop and found the old figure of the owner behind the counter. Now that he thought about it, that boy was only there during their nightshifts. _Probably a college student_ he could hear his own mind, accompanying it by a humming as he paid for his coffee can. _If I can’t even figure that out how do they expect me to solve people fucking vanishing all over the city?_

~***~

 

“The fuck you’re wearing?” Jackson let out a loud laugh as soon as Jinyoung opened his apartment door.

“You told me to dress fancy.” The raven-haired man looked at his partner with confused wide eyes as the other slipped inside. He couldn’t see where his outfit had gone wrong: a plain white shirt and a black suit, the simplest etiquette code.

“Clubbing-fancy not meeting-Mr.President-fancy!” The brunette let himself fall on the couch, careful not to touch the city map that was spread on the other side of it. “The thing about going incognito is not being recognized and your clothes scream a) gay man going through his middle age crisis looking for a pup to make him feel young again or b) catholic daddy’s little angel whose friends took him out from their religious countryside retirement to sin a little bit and maybe get to the morning sermon with no sleep in between.”

“That was oddly and terribly specific. I guess no tie then.” Jinyoung ran a hand over his face, first day of his fake holidays and he was already exhausted. With just half a glare at the other man’s attire -formed by a leather jacket, black tee, a golden chain matching some round glasses and military boots over black pants-, he understood that he was indeed overdressed and headed without more complains to his bedroom.

When he came back, Officer Wang was frowning at his almost empty fridge. “You really do need a roommate. Or a significant other, but that will be harder to—” He stopped midsentence to analyze his friend’s choice: a pastel pink sweat-shirt with light blue jeans and white sneakers. “That’s sliiiightly better.”

“You’re lucky to be five months older than me, brat.” JY sighed and rolled his eyes as he placed his house keys on his pocket. “I did my best, now let’s go.”

“Just for the record, this is not leisure, right? More like… extra hours.” Jackson’s musical laugh sounded once again. “Don’t give me that look, I need to know if our undercover mission allows me to get drunk or not.”

“You are fucking driving today.”

He had never liked clubs. In fact, he had never liked big crowds and noisy places.  Park Jinyoung was more into plain pubs, drinking nights and even -secretly- karaokes. He was not keen at all on paying entrance so strangers could bump into him pretending to follow some random beat. But they needed to inspect some of the Golden Tigers clubs, specially the ones that conformed what they have baptized as “The Bermuda Triangle”, which sides -or streets- concentrated the highest numbers of disappearances and strange murders they had been registering since the whole situation began.

As soon as they got in, Officer Park placed himself on the counter and asked for a coke, while Jackson went upstairs for a simple recognition round. Everything seemed so… normal. It was gonna be a long night. He breathed deeply, feeling the gun he had hanging on his ribcage against the skin. His friend came back a few songs later, beer in hand, and approached to his ear so the raven haired could understand him.

“Nothing. The only one suspicious here, it’s you. We should pretend to have fun, at least. Let’s dance.”

Jinyoung grunted, left the glass where he could and began walking towards the dance floor. It wasn’t long until both cops were swallowed by the mass of bodies swinging from one feet to another. He tried to get loose, even though he didn’t have a clue about dancing, even less, doing it sober, but he grinned at the sight of Jackson enjoying himself while he moved along with some random pretty girls. At least the brunette had an easily contagious happiness.

Suddenly, a silver glimpse caught his eye. Something had blinded him with light reflection just for a few seconds, but it was enough to wake up his instinct. So he glared in the direction where it had come from just to find a tall, slim man with pink hair dancing around, a silver triangular necklace around his black turtleneck. And then, a flashback popped in his mind and made his body move faster than his thoughts.

He had seen that jewelry piece before. In fact, he _had_ it now, in the evidence register.

“Jinyoung-nah!” Jackson called him, but either it was too late or his partner could not hear him, cause he kept walking with no smoothness, his objective clear. And even though he tried to go after him it was a lost cause, too many people blocked his way. “JINYOUNG!”

 

~***~

Jaebeom was observing the party through the VIP balcony, another perk of their business with Mr. Gym. He wouldn’t feel at ease leaving the boys alone, not after the last operation and even less after the indicators of some “competence” running around their territory. He knew he had done right as soon as he spotted the two cops on the dance floor. Yugyeom was laying next to him, one girl sitting on each of his legs while he snorted cocaine from their necks and Mark had volunteered to join their newest member on a trip to his hometown, just to check how his family was doing. So their leader only had to pay attention to Bambam, who had changed his hair color to a pastel pink, dancing among humans.

At first, he thought Jinyoung might have found the other attractive, even though he didn’t look like his type, lots of men did somehow. Anyways, he didn’t plan on taking his eyes off the dark-haired man. And he was right, for his manners barely took two seconds to become aggressive, determined.

Jb sighed, clenched his jaw and turned to Yugyeom, pointing at him with his index. “Don’t move.”

He ran downstairs and slid between the clients -meaning he carelessly pushed them- on his way to his teammate, to whom he whispered to leave at that exact moment, until he bumped himself against the policeman’s body.

“Move!” Jinyoung pressed his chest with his whole weight with no effect on the vampire’s balance.

“Chill, buddy, we all have the same space here.” Jaebum used his best acting skills, looking shocked right afterwards. “Officer Park! What are you doing here?”

“D-don’t call me that. I’m Jinyoung.” He complained, sounding as firm as he sounded nervous. The gang leader smiled for himself, it would be even easier than he thought.

“Free night, huh? I guess even the security forces need some time out.”

“I told you to shut up.” Officer Park gave him an ice-cold look, bathed in anger. “And to move.”

“Woah! Someone has drunk too much.” Jb laughed, patting his shoulder. “It’s alright, we all need to get loose sometimes don’t we.”

Jinyoung was filling himself with rage, even more after the pink haired dude disappeared from his sight. A hand reached his ribcage under the sweater completely oblivious to the fact that he had no plaque anymore to go with his weapon. Luckily or not, someone hugged him from behind right before he could pull his gun out.

“Hi Jaebum, having fun?” Officer Wang’s smile seemed grateful to meet the vampire’s one.

“Yes sir, but responsibly.” He winked, two fingers touching his temple mimicking a military salute. “What about you? Officer Park looks a bit… uncomfortable, is he alright?”

“Yeah yeah, no worries. He just hates being called Officer Park outside work.  And alcohol makes our Jinyoungie a bit… sensitive.”

“It does. I’m sorry offic—Jinyoung.”

The so called barely answered with a growl, still fighting against Jackson’s tight embrace.

“Well, my friends are waiting for me. See you around.”

With a victorious smile, Jb headed back to the balcony, where Bambam and Yugyeom awaited for an explanation of what had just happened. So did he.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY NEW YEAR!!  
> It was time for some fine interactions, huh. Hope you enjoyed it. What did you think about Byulie's cameo? There'll be some more to come in future episodes. Also I've been thinking about getting a tw acc or something in case you wanna comment there or ask stuff, what would you think about that? Anyways I'm talking too much today, so once again thank you for reading me and stay tunned!!
> 
> PS: Thanks again to Fat for being my most trusted advisor now and always <333


	14. Mourning

Mark’s idea of a weekend trip didn’t precisely include a four hours nocturn bus nor some lady with stinky feet and a light sleep kicking the back of his seat either.  But Youngjae’s wound had just healed and it was time for the team to reward him as an equal: Jaebum had conceded the boy a trip back home, just to check on his family from afar, and it was Mark’s half duty half choice to go too. He had always been Jb’s right hand, and the most trusted one to keep an eye on the younger members.

He also felt kind of guilty, being the only one of them to still be in touch with his parents. With a deep sigh, he turned his eyes to Youngjae, who was laying on the seat aside his. He had been staring at the vehicle ceiling for hours now, his arm raised behind his head, allowing the gang emblem to be seen on his inner upper arm. Yugyeom had made a great work with it, even though the original design was created by the leader: an Egyptian Ankh, symbol of life and eternity, resembling a dagger all in black and surrounded by a thorny silver rose. A bold, classic, almost ironic vampire iconography.

They would only have until sunrise, so first priority was to find a place as soon as they arrived at YJ’s village to stay the following day until they could catch the bus back home.  To be honest, the elder felt quite anxious about the other’s reaction on being back with no option to interact with whom used to be his people. The neophyte had proved himself loyal enough to earn that visit, but Mark’s desire was to act as a friend and not a nanny.  It would be like looking at everything he had lost through a store window, an experience harsh enough to break anyone’s heart. They had already warned him about it, but respected his decision, as teammates. It all felt like swimming with sharks, never knowing when the minimum stimulation would trigger them for massacre.

“Hey buddy, you okay?”

The rookie mumbled in confirmation, bitting his lower lip. Anyone could read his mind, with a thousand thoughts going through it per second. Mark wasn’t the type to squeeze people’s words out of their shut lips so he resumed his night sightseeing out of the bus window, hoping the hours they had left to go by as fast as possible.

“Mark.”

“Huh?”

“I lost Mr. Ghym’s necklace.”

“I guessed so. You haven’t been fidgeting with it lately. It’s fine, we’ll get you another one.”

It wasn’t fine. It meant trouble, lots of trouble. Even more if he had dropped it during Gravedigger’s killing. But it wasn’t the time to deal with it, not the place either. Even YJ felt that answer too light, but before he could ask anything else, the driver announced they had arrived to his hometown.

They took their almost empty bags and jumped off the bus. Youngjae felt like a ghost, like trapped in a dream. Everything looked the same, eventhough, for him nothing would be it anymore. They walked in silence, wondering through the empty dark streets at a slow pace. The neophyte was afraid of even staring at some house for too long, as if them all were about to turn to dust by the softest touch. Mark followed him without pronouncing a single sound, just praying for the other to know where they would stay the next morning. And he seemed to do so, since he stopped so abruptly in front of what looked like an abandoned house that the older almost fell over him.

“Is it here?”

“Inside it’s better than it looks.” He didn’t wait for any sign of approval before climbing from the small iron fence to the nearest second floor window, and Mark went in right after him.

He was right, apart from a few years old layer of dust and the absence of almost any furniture, the place was pretty well-preserved. They had brought everything they could need to isolate the place from sunlight -basically thick blankets to cover the windows-, some blood reserves, a couple lanterns and two sleeping bags, and after setting their brief camp, they jumped to the streets again.

Youngjae was boiling with pure anxiety, as never before. But he emanated it surprisingly underneath, nothing like how he behaved when he was thirsty for blood. In fact, it was more like the nervousness of a prey, its vulnerability. That made his friend feel uneasy once again, although he didn’t express it.

They kept walking fast towards the youngest old house, all in black and with their hoods on. He moved instinctively, his memories acting as a compass. As soon as Mark felt him accelerate his pace, he was sure they were almost there, and grabbed his arm before they turned the next corner. Under his hand, the other’s body was as tense as a block of cement.

“Listen, I’ll go first. Don’t leave my side at any times, and don’t let them see us. I’m sorry it has to be this way, but you know the rules.”

“I know.” Youngjae clenched his jaw and let the air slowly leave his nose from pure habit, no effort on trying to hide his anger. He pointed another house. “We’ll go from my neighbors’ rooftop then.”

Mark nodded and proceeded to climb to it, letting himself fall right after, no single noise heard when his feet landed on the grass where the neophyte had spent his whole childhood. The living room light was on, projecting on the whole garden through glass doors, except for the corner where they stood. He could feel the other’s body at his back, frozen at the sight. A woman kneeled inside, right in front of the chimney. She was wearing mourning clothes, and they could hear her crying, as she hugged something against her chest.

“Please _god_ , bring my boy back home.” She prayed -or so they guessed, their ears beeping when she named the deity- tears falling down her cheeks.  “I know he’s somewhere out there. Just make sure he’s healthy and fine… Please! It’s been too long!”

Mark watched at Youngjae, trembling by his side, his fists clenched, ready to stop him if he had to. But he just… Stared. Like a deer in front of a car’s headlights.

“Mom...”

The older one closed a preventive hand around his wrist and rubbed the skin with a thumb, no force applied, as a sign of support. YJ’s mother kept talking to what looked like a picture of a kid.

“Please, _lord_. My Youngjae is a good boy. Let… let me hug him one more time.” She covered her mouth with her forearm, muffling painful sobs.

Suddenly, a male figure stumbled behind her from the futon that laid in the center of the room, making the neophyte flinch. He would have jumped right inside the building if Mark had not tighten his embrace. It was easy for their hypersensitive hearing sense to eavesdrop on the conversation.

“Honey?” He hugged her from behind. From his husky voice and messy hair it was easy to know he had been sleeping minutes earlier. “It’s so late, come to bed.”

She shook her head, hugging the other arms in hers as she kept crying, eyes shut. “I need to hear his voice, just one more time. I miss my baby.”

“I know.” The man kissed the top of her head. He sounded terribly exhausted. “But he’s not coming home tonight.”

_Not ever._ Youngjae thought, the last part of his old self shattering to pieces.

His dad lifted his mom carefully and led her to bed. Right after he had turned off the lights, their missing son recognized what she had been clinging on to all night and threw himself forwards with a loud, hurting sound.

Mark dug his heels in the ground, securing both of them to it after being dragged a couple of meters by the other’s force. Just in time, since they had reached the doors by now. “I’m sorry.” He apologized with firm voice.

The neophyte revolved in his arms, but the whole situation had somehow weakened him to the point of being no more than a scared child. After a couple minutes of wrestling, he let himself fall to his knees, his palm resting against the glass surface, and the red haired let his arms loose around him.

During his hours-long reading about this new condition, Youngjae had learnt vampires did not cry. It made sense, for it was a biological function they no longer needed in their afterlife. They could relearn how to do it, though, since it was a useful way of tricking their preys and triggering their empathy. He had also read it could happen naturally on few rare occasions. But no one had registered a single tear on the books he had studied from. And yet, there he was, eyes-watered and completely defeated on the other’s arms, staring at a life he would never have again. “That was my teddy bear.”

He got no response from his friend, who remained stoically quiet. Maybe because he didn’t feel any kind of pity for him, may be because he wanted to give the newbie his own time and space within the boundaries he had agreed to respect, maybe because he had no words that could make it better. One way or another, no one moved for what could have been hours. Eventually, Youngjae pressed his forehead to the door, took a deep breath -out of habit- and whispered. “Forgive me. I miss you too.  Mom, please, move on. Dad, take care of mom. I’m so sorry. I should have been more careful. I should have come back home more often… I’m sorry I didn’t call… I’m sorry for…” His voice cracked, so he forced himself to smile sadly, cleaned his cheeks with the back of his hand and raised his eyes to the starry night before continuing. “… Everything. I have to go now. You were the best parents I could never have. I hope you know that. I’ll be fine, you two please take care. I love you.”

His whole body was shaking now and it took him all of his will to stand up again and turn his back to the house that had been his home for so many years. The sky had begun to lighten. To his surprise, Mark was standing several steps away, so those last words belonged entirely to him. He nodded, thankful, and found his way out in a hurry, knowing that if he stopped for the briefest second he would not be able to leave at all.

~***~

As soon as they were back at their apartment the following night, Youngjae locked himself in his room by slamming the door and Mark let himself fall on a chair next to JB’s with a cut on his cheek about to heal.

“What happened?” Bambam asked in the name of everyone else in the room.

“Turns out telling him that I was adopted and transformed willingly by vampires wasn’t the best way to comfort him.”

“Really?! How did you figure that out?” Yugyeom rolled his eyes to the back of his head.

“Go fuck yourselves! He asked me about them and I couldn’t find a lie on time. And we’ve never had a newborn in the gang before, I didn’t know how to handle it.” He turned to look at Jaebum, looking for an ally. “He’ll get over it. Besides, we’ve got more serious problems now. He lost the necklace at Gravedigger’s place.”

“That would explain many things.” The leader scratched his neck, his mind already tracing a map for their next moves. “We’ll have to go back and look for it. And take turns to keep an eye on officers Wang and Park. Give the kid some days to mourn. Also, Mark.”

“Hmm?”

“Find a proper way to apologize.”

 


End file.
